Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall didn’t feature regularly for Chelsea last season, but his foul record in the games he did play is quite promising and now that he’s joined Everton we should see him get a more consistent stream of games which can see his foul count gradually rise across the season.

Dewsbury-Hall committed four fouls across his 259 minutes of Premier League football last season (1.39 per 90) but the bulk of his appearances for the Blues came in the Conference League. Dewsbury-Hall committed eight fouls across his eight starts in the Conference League (0.70 per 90). There’s a few reasons we can expect this total to rise this season, mainly because the majority of games which Chelsea played in the Conference League last season weren’t very competitive, and Dewsbury-Hall still posted a promising fouls committed average as Chelsea went on to win the trophy.

Everton committed 11.3 fouls per game in the Premier League last season, with this number rising slightly when looking at their away games. This would suggest that Everton should clear at least double digits in fouls in what is set to be an intense atmosphere at Elland Road.

Everton’s attack looks really exciting now that they’ve added Jack Grealish to a frontline which already featured Iliman Ndiaye and Beto. Ndiaye and Grealish are both really strong when it comes to winning fouls, which is something to keep an eye on with Everton this season. Both ball carriers will allow Everton to win fouls high up the pitch and make the most of set pieces from these positions.

Ndiaye was Everton’s best attacking player last season in scoring 11 goals across his 37 appearances in all competitions for the Toffees, a solid return for a player who isn’t playing in the most forward-thinking setup. Ndiaye won 52 fouls across his 33 Premier League appearances last season, which was more than any other Everton player (1.92 per 90).

Ndiaye may have this ranking taken off him now that Grealish has joined the club, with the Englishman being even stronger at winning fouls than Ndiaye, but we can expect both to regularly win fouls, which is something that will aid Everton in winning them set pieces in dangerous areas.

Beto was the only Everton player to maintain an average of one or more shots on target per 90 in the Premier League last season which illustrates some of the issues that the Toffees had in front of goal. Beto scored eight goals across just 15 starts, registering 23 shots on target across these fixtures (1.35 per 90).

Beto is always a real handful but he may have to raise his level a little this season with Everton bringing in a few attacking reinforcements over the summer. The signing of Thierno Barry is the biggest threat to Beto, but he’s also a good option for this selection when factoring in Super Sub.

Barry scored 11 goals across his 25 starts in La Liga for Villarreal last season, registering 25 shots on target across those games (0.97 per 90). He could be a really effective option for Everton from the bench in the early weeks of the season, and eventually make a push for a starting spot with many of his attributes really suited to the Premier League.

Everton are a very stubborn side, no team drew more games than the Toffees last season (15-39% of their total games). This is mainly due to Everton’s strong defensive record, they’ll be without Jarrad Branthwaite here, which is a bit of a blo,w but I’m not convinced that Leeds have the firepower to break them down here.

Leeds may have scored 61 goals across their 23 games at Elland Road last season (2.65 per game), but this number should fall dramatically this campaign. Only Joel Piroe and Daniel James scored more than 10 goals for Leeds in the Championship last season, which is a cause for concern heading into this opening game, especially with Daniel Farke saying that he doesn’t think his side are ready to compete in the final third in the Premier League this season following a draw in pre-season against Villarreal.

I think Leeds will struggle to find goals throughout the season, especially against an Everton side that boasted one of the strongest defensive records in the Premier League last season. The volume of games that Everton drew last season would also suggest that overturning the Toffees is no easy task. David Moyes’ side avoided defeat in 12 of their 19 away games last season (63%).

Last season, all three promoted sides ranked in the top six when it came to yellow cards and I think we’ll see something similar this season, with a side like Leeds who can get a bit caught up in the emotion of Elland Road at times - especially in the opening game of a season.

Leeds collected the 2nd-fewest cautions of any side in the Championship last season (70), but this record is a result of Leeds dominating and controlling the majority of games they played in the second division. It would be very surprising to see Leeds maintain their possession average of 61.6% in the top-flight, which should result in a real rise in the number of defensive actions that Leeds have to undertake, naturally resulting in an increase in cautions.

Iliman Ndiaye was Everton’s most exciting attacking player last season, and I think he’ll be able to improve on the nine goals he scored in the Premier League last campaign. Ndiaye ended the season as Everton’s top scorer. It was quite impressive that he managed to score nine goals when looking through some of Everton’s offensive numbers from last season, which do not make for positive reading.

However, Everton have added to their squad in the transfer window with signings like Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish, which should improve the overall attacking performance of the squad. The return of Dwight McNeil shouldn’t be underestimated either, Everton really missed his creative ability - especially from set pieces.

Ndiaye is more likely to score than provide an assist; he didn’t set up a single goal in the Premier League last season, but this was partly down to the fact that there wasn’t really a reliable player that could get on the end of the chances he did manage to create (18 - 0.66 per 90). This metric should improve this season with the attacking reinforcements that Everton have drafted in.

No player picked up more yellow cards for Everton last season than Idrissa Gueye (nine), he’s still an important player for Everton even at the age of 35. Gueye committed 55 fouls across his 37 appearances for Everton last season (1.61 per 90), which is a foul rate that always gives him a good chance of picking up a booking.

The referee for this game is Chris Kavanagh, who was one of the most card-happy referees in the Premier League last season. Kavanagh handed out an average of 4.65 cards per game in the top-flight last term, and this is a game that could end up producing quite a few cards with the physical nature of Everton meeting the passion of Elland Road.

Brendan Aaronsen is a player who could win a few fouls from Gueye in this clash. Aaronsen won 67 fouls across his 46 appearances in the Championship last season (1.69 per 90).

My hope is that Grealish moving to Everton will bring out the Grealish we saw at Villa who was such an exciting player, before his move to City made him more predictable and robotic. This should result in an increase in Grealish’s shot numbers as he’s given more freedom in this Everton side to be the star player.

Grealish had just 15 shots across his seven starts in the Premier League last season (1.89 per 90). It’s hard to properly judge Grealish from these numbers, seeing as he was constantly in and out of the side. He averaged 1.97 shots per 90 across his 20 Premier League appearances in the 23/24 season, but he was still in and out of the side in that season. If we compare these numbers to Grealish’s last season at Aston Villa, it’s like we’re analysing a different player:

Grealish at Aston Villa (2019/20)

36 starts

8 goals

5 assists

2.03 shots p/90

4.65 fouls won p/90

2.50 chances created p/90